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THEATRE PREVIEW Graft
Berkoff’s story of an actor’s life adapted for the stage.
'If this show puts off some young person from becoming an actor, then I think I will have done the world a favour,’ says George Dillon. ’ I’d have certainly done them one.’ Performed and directed by Dillon, the world- premiere of Steven Berkoff’s cynical pitch-black comedy narrates the trials and tribulations of Harry, a budding thespian facing a life of occasional working highs while teetering over an abyss of stinging rejection.
’l’m on a mission this year, part of it’s to save a very talented young person from throwing their life away on a fucking awful profession,’ claims Dillon. Even if you’ve never been tempted to play the Dane, Harry’s rollercoaster ride to success could still teach you a thing or two: ’I want people to see the show and take the message away with them. It’s not just "don’t be an actor”, there’s an important and powerful message there, a universal one.’ (Olly Lassman) I Graft (Fringe) George Dillon, Komedia (Fringe) 667 2212, 4—27 Aug (not 74) 6.10pm, £70 (£5).
THEATRE PREVIEW
A Lump In M Throat: John Diamond An Me
A journalist’s musings on his cancer John Diamond’s musings on throat cancer in his controversial column for The Times established a new poignancy in contemporary journalism. His honest and brave approach over the past three years has attracted a massive readership and, after reading the collected columns, TV comedy producer Robert Katz set out to turn the highlights into a play.
Adapted and directed by Diamond’s personal friend and fellow-journalist Victoria Coren, the play, like the columns themselves, treads a fine line between laugh-out-loud hilarity and unbearable poignancy. 'l've seen a lot of shows about cancer,’ says Coren 'and the thing about John’s story is that he writes with cancer rather than about cancer.’
In only his second acting
COMEDY PREVIEW The Boosh
After their 1998 Best Newcomers Perrier Award. and a month of full houses last year, you'd think we'd have a pretty solid handle on Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, but there are still tags that disturb Barratt. ‘Surreal’ is one reviewer’s standby that causes him to bridle. Are they really like Salvador Dali? 'More like Steptoe And Son, really,’ says Barratt. ’I mean there’s an element of it in the wordplay, but they were very political, the surrealists. and we're apolitical. You could call Vic and Bob surreal, in a way, but we're a bit different.’
So what would he call it? 'Well, what’s important is the characters we play. We want people to get into them, and the strange situations that happen to them, like Hope and Crosby. Some people don't like the kind of shambolic whinging we get up to, they expect us to seem professional, while we confidently talk rubbish. But
there’s something very simple underneath our humour,
and you have to go with that.’
Barratt says their humour is not about absurdity, but the logic underneath it. ’This one is quite a simple story about two characters who go on a journey. then come
performance, Robert Katz will perform as John Diamond. ’Robert is the perfect person to perform this,’ says Coren. ’He’s a low-key performer and very modest and that allows the writing and the personality of John to come out.’
(Catherine Bromley)
I A Lump In My Throat (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, 3—28 Aug, 6pm, £9/£70 (£8/£9).
COMEDY PREVIEW
Phil Davey
Little Aussie butler
Former butler to the aristocracy, Australian comic Phil Davey trades in his white gloves for a solitary
Robert Katz: a Diamond geezer
(Steve Cramer)
microphone as he heads north for his Fringe debut. And it promises to be an upbeat affair with not a dark thought in sight. ’lt’s a show about happiness,’ says Davey. ’About what makes me happy, how easy it is to be happy yourself, how to keep your happiness and, if you lose your happiness, how to get it back.’
Gyrating between manic depression and uncontrollable rapture himself, Davey focuses on the latter, promising more energy and physicality than your standard comic fare. Following a number of recent TV appearances, Davey hopes that his positive energies will rub off on Edinburgh audiences.
’My show’s a feel-good show,’ he says.
’lt’s like seeing Strangers On A Train. It's designed to make you feel a bit better, and to put a smile on your face.’ (Davie Archibald)
I Phil Davey (Fringe) Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 5—28 Aug (not 7, 21) 7pm, £8.50/£9 (£7. 50/£8). Previews 3—4 Aug, £4.
COMEDY PREVIEW
How To Avoid Huge Ships Comic’s comedy from Cambridge With a very positive press preview behind him at Cambridge, Summer Arts Festival producer James Williams sounds upbeat as he rushes out the plot details to this little jape: ’It’s a comedy show about three people who live together. One of them, a stand-up comedian, comes home from his 100th gig and gets writer’s block. lnfuriatingly, his two flatmates are
Boosh tucker men
back. It’s not like sketch comedy, it's a narrative.’
I Autoboosh (Fringe) The Boosh, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 8, 22) 7.30pm, £8.50—£9.50 (£7. 50—£8. 50). Previews 34 Aug, £4.
being really funny and becoming comedians. It’s basically a backstabbing comedy of the comedy world.’
Like films about filmmakers,
comedies about comics are notoriously difficult to carry off, but with the strong cast of Alex Horne (winner of last year’s So You Think You’re Funny Award), Emma Conway and Tom Bell this could well succeed. A very knowing script by all three, which ’looks improvised but it’s not’, shows the potential to get away with a parody of parody. (Paul Dale) I How To Avoid Huge Ships (Fringe) Eat Your House Productions, Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2157, 4—28 Aug (not 22) 6pm, £7.50 (£6.50).
COMEDY PREVIEW
Boom Chicago Is Watching Small screen reaches big stage Wave bye-bye to your inhibitions, because legendary impro-meisters Boom Chicago are back with a voyeuristic new show that uses giant TV screens and multimedia effects to blast apart your fragile little private lives.
’lt’s nothing like the Boom Chicago stuff in the past,’ says director Andrew Moskos, but just in case you're of a nervous disposition, it’s not all as scary as it sounds: ’We don’t want people to think: "Oh My God! I’m going to be humiliated on a big-screen TV!" It’s a comedy show and we’re using the camera for ideas to inspire scenes. You can come in confidence!’
50 THE UST FESTIVAL GUIDE 3—1 0 Aug 2000